Author: Mohammad Aghajani

Effectiveness of Pre-procedural Psycho-education on Pain Perception and Anxiety in Women Undergoing Colposcopy

Cervical cancer is a major cause of morbidity and mortality among women. It is the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer in females. Screening strategies such as colposcopy can cause anxiety, discomfort, and pain in patients during this procedure and poor quality of life. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of psychoeducation on pain perception and anxiety in women undergoing colposcopy. This randomized clinical trial included 60 women, candidates for colposcopy referred to the surgical clinic of Kashan, Iran. The patients were randomly assigned into two groups: the experimental group, which received 60 minutes of psychoeducation, and the control group. Data were collected with the Spielberger anxiety inventory and visual analog score of pain and were analyzed using independent and dependent t-tests, Chi-square, and co-variance performed with SPSS version 16. The means of anxiety scores were significantly decreased post-psychoeducation in the intervention group, and the differences between the two groups were statistically significant in the anxiety scores (P < 0.0001). A significant difference was observed between the mean anxiety scores of the intervention group prior to and after the psychoeducational program (PEP) intervention (99.50 ± 5.28 vs. 84.89 ± 8.80) (P 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between the mean pain score between the study and the control group at the end of the study (P= 0.17). Psychoeducation resulted in reduced anxiety in women undergoing colposcopy. Therefore, it is recommended to consider this intervention as a suitable and effective complementary, non-invasive, low-cost method to reduce anxiety in these patients.

The Effect of an Empowerment Program on the Spiritual Care Competence of Nursing Students: A Randomized Clinical Trial Study

Spiritual care is an integrated section of nursing. Proper implementation of it to patients requires that care providers have the necessary competencies in this regard. Therefore, this study was performed to investigate the effect of an empowering program on spiritual care competence (SCC) in nursing students. This study was a randomized controlled trial that was performed on 60 nursing students at Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups. The intervention group was under the spiritual empowering plan in seven sessions. The control group was traditionally trained. Data were collected by a spiritual care competence scale and analyzed using Fisher, independent and paired t-test in SPSS 16v. Baseline characteristics were similar in the two groups. The mean score of SCC was significantly increased post-empowerment for the intervention group. The differences between the two groups were statistically significant in the SCC scores (p<0.037). A significant difference was observed between the mean of the SCC score of the intervention group before and after the empowering (p < 0.0001). While, no significant changes were observed in the control group, before and after the study (p= 0.44). Empowering spiritual care skills in nursing students develops the quality of care in patients, which requires more attention in the educational curriculum.

Exploring of clinical decision making in care of patients with acute care in critical nurses: A qualitative content analysis

The appropriate clinical decision-making of the nurses can improve the patient outcome and reduce costs, otherwise delaying the recovery and preferably the death of the patient especially in acute care setting. The aim of this study was to describe the clinical decision making in care of patients with acute care in critical nurses. This study was a qualitative study conducted in 2020. Purposive sampling was used and continued until saturation. The study involved sixteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with critical nurses who had experience providing care for acute patients in critical care units. Interviews transcript and analyzed by qualitative content analysis. Two major themes were generated from the data included instantaneous decision-making and life-saving of the patient. This process was depended on the nurse’s ability to summarize in the moment, to consider everything, to focus on the patient, to combine experience and knowledge, to concern the patient's life, to prevent the deterioration of the patient's conditions and responsibility to their patients.